In the past three years, Maine has recovered only 10 percent of the jobs it lost to the Great Recession, says economist Charlie Colgan of the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine.

Even the modest national recovery is largely by-passing Maine: That's the finding of economist Charlie Colgan from the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine.

In the past three years, Colgan says, Maine has recovered only 10 percent of the jobs it lost to the Great Recession. And that, he says, has held down incomes and retail spending. And while manufacturing has grown nationally, mainly due to a rebound in the auto industry, Colgan says the state's big manufacturing industry is still struggling.

"Our biggest manufacturing sector is forest products, which is heavily dependent on construction," Colgan says. "And we're seeing in the magazine and newspaper business some real issues with continued growth in that sector."

Looking ahead, Colgan says if the country doesn't go over the so-called "fiscal cliff," the Maine economy will still see job growth of just one-half percent next year, and maybe one-and-a-half percent in 2014.